As I perused the fall fashion issue of Vanity Fair I took an extended length of time to reflect on the article illustrating the best dressed people of all time. The article highlighted many of high-society’s male figures, but it was the women that gave me pause. What was it about these ladies that made their personal style so appealing?
The most intriguing person I read about was Babe Paley.
Babe was an American socialite and a Depression-era style icon. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame (there is such a thing?) in 1958, after winning at least a dozen other fashion accolades. As the daughter of a world-renowned brain surgeon and the wife of oil heir Stanley Grafton Mortimer, Babe was never at a loss for the means to decorate herself in the hottest couture designs of her time. At the tender age of 25 she got a position as a fashion editor for Vogue in New York City and just a year later was elected by Time Magazine as the world’s second best dressed woman.
What was it that made her stand out?
This photograph of Babe first appeared in the February issue of Vogue in 1946. Her expression is a carefully composed combination of nonchalance and sadness with a dash of cool, and is just one of the reasons the photograph is still so compelling 65 years later.
The cigarette -and it’s long, silver holder – was such a sexy accessory back in the 40′s. Part of the romance of this photograph is the way the curves of her body are silhouetted between the wispy smoke and the bright background light, but it’s still quite amazing to me how women could be photographed while smoking and yet continued to be the picture of sophistication while doing it.
The truly chic are timeless – the loose sweater, the way the fedora is placed ever-so-carelessly over a chignon, and the simple pair of ballet flats could place her at any location at any time. As Bill Blass once observed,
“I never saw her not grab anyone’s attention, the hair, the makeup, the crispness. You were never conscious of what she was wearing; you noticed Babe and nothing else.”
Babe was not only a lavish entertainer, but was also known to purchase entire haute couture collections at once. This and her desire to go against the grain gave her the reputation as a trend-setter: a photograph of her with a scarf tied to her bag ignited a trend that millions of women emulated. She mixed extravagant jewelry with cheap costume jewelry (which is a luxury known to only the extremely wealthy.) Ever the rule breaker, she made pantsuits chic and let her hair grey naturally. Bravo, Babe!
Despite her extreme wealth, her fabulous circle of New York “Swans” and her international fashion fame, she suffered a lonely marriage and inescapable public scrutiny. Babe’s 2 packs of cigarettes a day habit caught up with her when lung cancer took her life in her early 60′s. Being the entertainer and style icon that she was, it came as no surprise that she planned her own funeral right down to the food and wine selection at the funeral luncheon. Her final fete was to be nothing short of fabulous.
Babe had a way of carrying her perfectly coiffed hair, fabulous jewels, and coterie of friends and designers as though it were effortless. Though her actual life was far from perfect, her friend Truman Capote once said,
“Babe Paley only had one fault. She was perfect. Otherwise she was perfect.”
She had a fashion savoir faire to be envied and grace and elegance to be emulated.
November 1st, 2011 
Elise 
